Prj 2: Self-Portrait

I am really into storytelling, so I thought I'd do a short comic strip-like short story. I always thought I was a lucky person and I stumbled into success a lot of the time, so I made a short narrative about one of my sewn characters walking down the street and slipping on a banana peel but landing in a big vat of free ice cream. I planned to use the computer for my background images on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, then do the character in actual felt full of cotton. I planned to sew up the character with yarn and glue/sew the character onto the background.

Artists and their Portraiture

Cui Xiuwen

Cui Xiuwen's portraiture has a very sad, gloomy mood to them. This woman seems very virginal and innocent, yet her breasts and pregnant belly can be easily seen through her thin white dress. When I look at this piece, I get this sort of lonely feeling. The far stretching city landscape behind her very dominating figure makes me think as if even while this poor girl is suffering, life is still going on. No one cares. Yet she seems as if she doesn't care. She looks scared, but she is not crying out for help. She has accepted the fact that help will never come, and that is what makes the female portrayal in Xiuwen's work very strong. This female does not need help, but she is not afraid to show her feelings of fear and dejection.
Cindy ShermanCindy Sherman sometimes takes very eerie, disturbing photographs. Her figures are very dominant in her portraits and are always very closely cropped. The women in some these photographs (like the above) are very strong, yet dangerously so. They look very menicing and horrifying, much like snapshots of old horror films like Psycho or Excorcist. However, some (like below) are very photographs full of fear and drama. It makes you wonder what is going to happen after this photo is taken, either way you know it will not be good. Her portraits are always very dark, yet the lights used are very warm like yellow and orange. All of her portraits are of women (mostly herself). She uses very dominant figures, yet it seems like they are either being attacked or are the attackers.
Frida Kahlo
Frida does many self portraits of herself. She exaggerates her unibrow and makes it very dominating on her face. She seems like she wants to paint her face, displaying all of her flaws with pride. The large unibrow she creates makes her look very austere and powerful. She does very zoomed up portraits of her face, rarely showing below her waist. Her portrayal of women is very domniating, yet she portrays herself very naturally. She has facial hair. She doesnt deny it. She celebrates it. She portays herself as a woman with little fears.

Final Thoughts
Cui Xiuwen, Cindy Sherman, and Frida Kahlo are very different as artists. They're styles are completely different. Cui Sherman takes very bold, yet simply taken portraits of young women. To me, she portrays that sexuality can be freeing and enslaving all at once. She shows the confusion and loneliness of adolescence. Cindy Sherman, on ther other hand, takes very dark, shiver-enducing photographs. They always are taken with dramatic lighting and make-up.

Illustrator Assignment